But that still doesn't really answer to what's the relevance to this discussion? It's not really a symptom of a smart TV nor the result of ads from aggressive c

But that still doesn't really answer to what's the relevance to this discussion? It's not really a symptom of a smart TV nor the result of ads from aggressive cost cutting. It's a cool hack, and probably the only conceivable reason I'd ever let a TV take a firmware update, but it's hardly relevant to the topic of whether or not you should let your TV access the internet or whether or not Smart TVs are malicious when denied internet access during setup.